Archaeologia Cambrensis

active interest in the completion of the railway from the coal field of Glamorgan, for which eight Acts of Parliament have been obtained, and the formation of the harbour at Porthcawl.

PORTHCAWL.

In the last-mentioned undertaking, the harbour, much remains to be done to attain three chief objects: first, to secure still water within the basin; secondly, safe means of entrance and exit; and thirdly, shelter from the westerly gales. For the first of these desiderata, a new eastern key wall, and a prolongation of the south wall of the basin to join it, has been proposed; the enlarged area would give both smoother water and larger accommodation. For the second, the carrying out the present breakwater, south-east, about ninety yards, and as funds accumulate, still further, into two fathoms or deeper water. Each of these Improvements has been estimated at about £12,000, and their accomplishment would pave the way to the attainment of the third desideratum,—shelter from the gales,—an object not of local, only, but of national importance, whilst every year "all that travel by land or by water" find the safe shipment and regular supply of coal and iron, more and more indispensable.

It may be useful to add that the estimated quantity of land in the parish of Newton Nottage, according to the Commutation Rent Charge, 1846, was 3313 acres, viz :—

mesh was the most successful. Every mesh held its fish, and formed a wall that swept on the beach all before it. The quantity is very inadequately expressed by numbers,—they were caught by cart-loads. As these shoals were only passengers for a week, with their heads directed up channel, we had an opportunity of noting that their feeding time was morning and evening. They were pursuing the fry of the herring, and I found their stomachs constantly full of them." This was in Porthcawl Bay, and off the breakwater.

Arable, 1360

Meadow or Pasture, 710

Common or Waste, 1018J

Wood, 30

Covered with sand, 194J

3313

According to the census of 1831, there were in Newton Nottage parish:—

Males, 293

Females, 333

Total, 626

In 1841.—Inhabitants, 792

In 1851.—Males, 492

Females, 467

Total, 959

In 1851.—Inhabited Houses, 196

Uninhabited houses, 11

Building, 1

The increase in the two periods of ten years had been 166 and 167 respectively.

Dimensions of the Parish Church :—

Length of chancel, inside, 27

Length of nave to tower door, 44

Total, 71

Breadth of chancel, inside, 18

Breadth of nave, 22

The highest sand hill, "Twmpath Mawr," thirty ears ago, was about one-third of a mile westward of Sandford Well, and sixty feet in height. The next in
elevation was between the Well and the Bathing House; neither of them had the burnet rose, dwarf privet, or peculiar mosses; both then seemed of recent drift, and both have disappeared. The old people said the highest of all had been to the south-eastward of the Well near the beach.

Mr. Donovan notices the Medusae of various hues thrown up on the coast. For the Dog Periwinkle {Purpura Lapillus), and its lasting dye, see Appendix to "A Disquisition on the Commerce of Ancient Tyre," Neath, 1852.

It gives me much pleasure to append the following "List of Less Common Birds killed in the neighbourhood of Newton Nottage," arranged according to Bewick, obligingly communicated by my brother, the Rev. E. Doddridge Knight:—

LAND BIRDS.

Sea Eagle

Peregrine Falcon

Moor Buzzard

XCite

Hooded Crow

Chough

Ring Ouzel

Hoopoe

Snow Bunting

Mountain Sparrow..

Mountain Finch ....

Rock Lark

Red-legged Partridge

Quail

Golden Plover

Two caught on Kenfig Burrows, 1818;two others seen during the severe frost, 1830; one at Newton, on the Rabbit Warren, January 29, 1833, towards the Ogmore. Near Margam. Stuffed by the Tytheg-

ston gardener. Formerly common. Very common thirty years ago. Common on shore. .Common; breeds at Dunraven. Killed at Pant yr Heals, 1817. Hoopoe Killed at Southerndown, August, 1836. Three killed near Margam. Stuffed by

the Tythegston gardener. , Seen to the north of Newton, near Coy-

trahene. Two killed, 1828. .Common on the Middle Point. . Several killed near Grove in 1850, supposed to have come from the neighbourhood of Dunraven.

numbers of these and other geese, and also swans, passed over Newton in the severe frost of 1829-30.

Velvet Duck Near Sker, 1836.

Scaup Duck Newton Pool, 1832.

Shoveller Ditto, 1835.

Pin Tail Ditto, October 17,1835.

Golden Eye Common.

Tufted Duck Common.

Garganey Two killed on Newton Pool, March,

1818. Gannet Not uncommon in autumn after heavy

gales.

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV. 2 M

"I believe the above to be a tolerably correct list of the birds which have come under my own observation; with very few exceptions, I examined and identified them all myself."—E. D. K.

A full-grown Seal, one of a pair, was killed at Newton Point some years ago; its skin is stuffed and preserved in the Neath Museum.

ON CARN GOCH, IN CAERMARTHENSHIRE.

(Read at Brecon.)

No portion of Wales is more interesting to the general inquirer, more suggestive to the native antiquary, than the region which our ancient historians loved to designate as the principality of Ystrad-Tywy or Stratywy. Geographically described, it may be regarded as the basin, or rather succession of basins, drained by the river Towy and its tributaries. And although the county of Caermarthen extends beyond these natural limits, nevertheless, almost everything remarkable within its confines is to be found in the vale of Towy, and its adjacent slopes and mountains.

It would be an endless task to enumerate the various objects commemorative of man and his labours which are scattered in profusion among these picturesque valleys and gently swelling hills. But it may be said that we have still remaining every specimen of the work of man which antiquarians prize, and the historian would willingly explain. The remains are still visible of the monumental works of the first inhabitants of these islands, of the primitive fortress, the stone circle, with its accompaniments the "maen hir," the "cromlech," &c; of the camps, roads and settlements of the Romans; of the British Church, established in these districts previous to the arrival of the Romish Augustine and his retinue. Many localities are still connected with the